Late-night Shows to Shut Down After Writers Call Strike
3 min read
The Writers Guild of America declared that their unionized screenwriters are all set to go on strike on Monday at midnight in a row over pay.
Here is everything you need to know.
Late-Night shows to go dark after Writers guild strike called
The union which represents 11,500 writers in Hollywood announced on Monday that they are going on strike at midnight.
Moreover, it means that the networks will show reruns of our beloved late-night comedy shows from Tuesday to fill the programming gap.
In addition, the union has reached this decision after their months-long battle with the studio over low pay in the wake of the streaming era.
They wrote, ‘The Board of Directors of the @WGAWest and the Council of the @WGAEast, acting upon the authority granted to them by their memberships, have voted unanimously to call a strike, effective 12:01 AM, Tuesday, May 2.’
Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers’ late-night shows will shut down production on Tuesday as Hollywood writers have agreed to go on strike. pic.twitter.com/qu8SVJ82tG
— Pop Base (@PopBase) May 2, 2023Advertisement
Furthermore, the union shared that they were in talks with online services such as Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Universal, Sony, etc for six weeks before making the decisions.
Besides that, the latest strike marks the first time that production teams have halted their work in 15 years.
The previous strike took place in 2007 and lasted for nearly 100 days and eventually cost Hollywood an estimated $2.1 billion.
Seth Meyers and Pete Davidson react to the writers of the late-night show calling strike
Seth Meyers, who is the host of Late Night with Seth Meyers, seemingly has been quite vocal about his support for the writers.
He said in a statement, ‘I love that we get to come in with an idea for what we want to do every day and we get to work on it all afternoon and then I have the pleasure of coming out here.’
He continued, ‘No one is entitled to a job in show business. But for those people who have a job, they are entitled to fair compensation. They are entitled to make a living.’
Four people who make late-night TV shows, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Seth Meyers, will stop making their shows on Tuesday because the people who write the shows are going on strike.
— Bob Is Here To Explain (@ExplainThisBob) May 2, 2023
Meyers mentioned, ‘I think it’s a very reasonable demand that’s being set out by the guild. And I support those demands.’
Pete Davidson on the other was slated to return on SNL on 6th May to promote his Peacock comedy series Bupkis which begins this week.
But the Suicide Squad jokingly said that he is taking the issue ‘personally’ during an interview with The Tonight Show.
He stated, ‘It sucks because it just feeds my weird story I have in my head, like, of course, that would happen to me.’
